Certain medical fluids are administered by controlled infusion and require a slow but non-rate critical flow rate. Infusion of a medical fluid in this manner has generally been accomplished by use of a drip bag gravity-feed system or an electronic infusion pump. The drip bag provides a non-rate critical flow with a simple and relatively inexpensive apparatus. However, in certain applications, particularly those involving small fluid volumes, the use of disposable syringes is preferred to drip bags. Administration of medical fluids at a low flow rate using a syringe is generally accomplished by the use of a predetermined force that is applied to the syringe plunger so that fluid resistance acts to control the flow rate. Current devices for applying force to a syringe plunger can have a housing for holding the syringe and a simple mechanism located within the housing that causes force to be applied to the plunger. While effective, these devices are often designed to be used with proprietary syringe sets, rendering medical fluid administration expensive.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved syringe driver, and in particular for a syringe driver that can be used with standard medical syringes.